Activist: Regain the Sovereignty of the Temple Mount

Rabbi Yehuda Glick reiterates the call to establish a commission of inquiry into Friday's events on the Temple Mount.

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Arutz Sheva Staff, 12/03/13 03:45

Temple Mount

Israel news photo: Flash 90

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, spokesman for the Jewish Temple organizations reiterated on Monday the call to establish an official commission of inquiry into Friday's events on the Temple Mount.

On Friday, for the first time ever, rioting Arabs threw firebombs at police on the Mount, and one policeman caught fire and miraculously suffered only slight wounds.

Footage filmed by the Arabs themselves and uploaded to the internet shows security forces remaining in place and not moving as Arabs from the Al-Aqsa Mosque throw rocks, chairs, firebombs and anything else they can find.

"Police do not respond because of the orders they were given,” Rabbi Glick told Arutz Sheva, saying that a number of police officers had explained to him they had been given orders that prevent them from acting to enforce the law on the Temple Mount compound.

"If a Jew would bring a bottle of wine on to the Temple Mount there’s a riot, but an Arab brings up a firebomb and that’s okay?” he added, noting that Friday’s riot was the most serious one since the terror war that began in 2000.

Rabbi Glick repeated the call to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate how Israel lost its sovereignty on the Temple Mount and how it should act to regain it.

"The situation could deteriorate further,” he indicated. “It’s important to wake up now before it's too late, so we do not have a situation like the Cave of Machpelah where someone committed a massacre and then they made these and other arrangements. We need to change the situation and allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.”

Israel liberated the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War, leaving the Waqf in charge of the compound.

Israeli Police, in an attempt to appease the Waqf, discriminate against Jews. They limit the number of Jewish worshippers allowed on the Temple Mount at one time in order to prevent conflict with Muslim worshippers. They often close the Mount to Jews in response to Muslim incited riots.

Former Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon was forced last week to cut short a visit to the Temple Mount after he personally witnessed the discrimination by Israeli police towards Jewish visitors to the holy site.